I've spent almost my entire career as a journalist covering tech in and around Silicon Valley, meeting entrepreneurs, executives and engineers, watching companies rise and fall (or in the case of Apple, rise, fall and rise again) and attending confabs and conferences. Before joining Forbes in February 2012, I had a very brief stint in corporate communications at HP (on purpose) and worked for more than six years on the tech team at Bloomberg News, where I dived into the financial side of tech. Before that, I was Silicon Valley bureau chief for Interactive Week, a contributor to Wired and Upside, and a reporter and news editor for MacWeek. The first computer game I ever played was Zork, my collection of now-vintage tech T-shirts includes a tie-dye BMUG classic and a HyperCard shirt featuring a dog and fire hydrant. When I can work at home, I settle into the black Herman Miller Aeron chair that I picked up when NeXT closed its doors. You can email me at cguglielmo@forbes.com.

Updates with Apple comment, analyst comment, background on executives and a copy of Cook’s email to employees.

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced several major changes to his management team, saying that Scott Forstall, who runs the iOS team behind the iPhone’s mobile software and much-maligned Maps app, will depart next year but stay on in the interim as an advisor.

John Browett, who just joined Apple in January to run the retail stores division, is out and Cook said he will run the group until a new retail chief can be hired. The search, Cook told employees in an email (see below), is already underway.

Several current members of Cook’s Executive Team, known as the ET, have also been given added responsibilities, including design chief Jony Ive, who will now be in charge of “human interface” across the company in addition to industrial design. “Jony has an incredible design aesthetic and has been the driving force behind the look and feel of our products for more than a decade,” Cook said in his email. “The face of many of our products is our software and the extension of Jony’s skills into this area will widen the gap between Apple and our competition.”

Eddy Cue, who runs the iTunes division, is taking over Maps and Apple’s Siri voice technology. Bob Mansfield, who had been running the hardware engineering team and said earlier this year he would retire before reversing that decision, will lead a new group called “Technologies.” It will combine “all of Apple’s wireless teams across the company in one organization, fostering innovation in this area at an even higher level. This organization will also include the semiconductor teams, who have ambitious plans for the future.”

Cook told employees that Mansfield will stay on for two years.

The management changes are big news for Apple, which has seen little executive turnover since Steve Jobs returned to lead the company in 1997. Most of the ET has been with Apple for more than a decade. and Cook, who took over as CEO from Jobs in August 2011, upped the compensation of several executives last year in a move analysts say was intended to retain them and acknowledge their years of service.

“I continue to believe that Apple has the most talented and most innovative people on the planet,” Cook wrote to employees in his email. “Today, I am announcing changes that will encourage even more collaboration between our world-class hardware, software and services teams at all levels of our company.”

Maps Fallout?

Scott Forstall, who was in charge of Apple's iOS mobile software and its much-criticized Maps app, will depart next year.

Forstall, who joined Apple in 1997 and was a major force behind the Mac OS X operating system, has been “responsible for delivering the software at the heart of Apple’s revolutionary iPhone including the user interface, applications, frameworks and the operating system.” That software, iOS, came under fire last month when the new Version 6 included a widely criticized, Apple-designed Maps app that failed to give proper directions, among other things.

About a week after its release, Cook apologized to “frustrated” customers in an open letter on the company’s website, saying the Maps app “fell short” of Apple’s commitment to “deliver the best customer experience possible to our customers.” There is some speculation that Forstall dismissed the early complaints, putting him at odds with Cook. According to the New York Times and others, Forstall refused to sign the public letter of apology.

Apple watcher Jon Gruber of Daring Fireball, who called the news a “blockbuster” change in executive leadership, says Forstall’s ouster may have to do with his being at odds with Ive over the approach to user interface design. That would explain Ive’s new expanded “Human Interface” role.

Still, Forstall, who worked with Jobs at NeXT Inc. on the NeXTStep operating system that formed the underpinnings for OS X and iOS, has helped to make those OSes key successes for the company.

“We believe what may have triggered this is the less than stellar roll-out of Apple’s new Maps app,” Shaw Wu, an analyst with Sterne Agee said. “It is an ambitious effort replacing Google Maps and bringing new functionality including turn-by-turn navigation and 3G photo-realistic rendering. We find it unfortunate that Scott Forstall may be taking the fall for this. As we have said before, we have high confidence that the Maps app is fixable as it is software and will get better over time as more data is collected. People forget that Google Maps started out inferior to Yahoo Maps and Mapquest.”

Apple said today that Craig Federighi, who just joined Cook’s management team in August when he was promoted to senior vice president of Mac software engineering, will now be responsible for both iOS and Mac OS X.

“It’s kind of surprising and comes out of the blue,” Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Gartner Inc. said of the management changes. “The speculation is that Forstall is taking the fall for Maps.”

But some of the other changes aren’t so surprising, Milanesi said. Browett, who joined Apple on Jan. 30 after serving as CEO of European technology retailer Dixons Retail for five years, was an “odd choice” for Apple, she said. “On the retail store front, Apple is having to deal with becoming a bigger company. They need to retain a high touch and feel good service that they’re customers have been accustomed to. I don’t think that someone coming from Dixon would have given them that.”

Browett replaced longtime Apple retail chief Ron Johnson, who left last year to become the CEO of JC Penney. Apple operates 390 stores, 140 of which are outside the U.S. The stores accounted for 12 percent of Apple’s sales last quarter.

Browett made headlines in August when reports emerged that he planned to make staff cuts to boost profit, including firing some retail store employees, reducing hours for part-time employees and cutting overtime, among other things. “Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman, told Dow Jones at the time. “Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve.”

While the executive changes are a surprise, Wu of Sterne Agee said investors should take them in stride. “This isn’t the first time that senior executives have departed the company. Some we think of include Fred Anderson, Jon Rubenstein, Tony Fadell, Avi Tevanian, and Bertrend Setlet and the company has arguably not missed a beat,” Wu said. “We believe this is a testament to Apple’s strong culture that continues to endure despite changes in personnel through the years.”

Here’s Apple’s announcement about today’s management shakeup:

CUPERTINO, California—October 29, 2012—Apple today announced executive management changes that will encourage even more collaboration between the Company’s world-class hardware, software and services teams. As part of these changes, Jony Ive, Bob Mansfield, Eddy Cue and Craig Federighi will add more responsibilities to their roles. Apple also announced that Scott Forstall will be leaving Apple next year and will serve as an advisor to CEO Tim Cook in the interim.

“We are in one of the most prolific periods of innovation and new products in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The amazing products that we’ve introduced in September and October, iPhone 5, iOS 6, iPad mini, iPad, iMac, MacBook Pro, iPod touch, iPod nano and many of our applications, could only have been created at Apple and are the direct result of our relentless focus on tightly integrating world-class hardware, software and services.”

Jony Ive will provide leadership and direction for Human Interface (HI) across the company in addition to his role as the leader of Industrial Design. His incredible design aesthetic has been the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple’s products for more than a decade.

Eddy Cue will take on the additional responsibility of Siri® and Maps, placing all of our online services in one group. This organization has overseen major successes such as the iTunes Store®, the App Store℠, the iBookstore℠ and iCloud®. This group has an excellent track record of building and strengthening Apple’s online services to meet and exceed the high expectations of our customers.

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I never thought John Browett was the right retail head for Apple, so not really surprised to see him go. But the departure of Forstall is shocking, for he was the main driving force behind Apple’s much loved iOS… even though siri and map both failed to impress, he still got the credit for making iOS the best mobile OS around. I’d say the conflict he’s been having with Ivy over iOS design is the main reason why he is on the outs, and with him leaving, it just shows how Apple values Ivy and product design over everything else.

I love Ivy’s design but I hope this will not become the case of trading functionality over design in its mobile software. It will be interesting to see what Apple’s iOS will become in the near future.

This just proves how incompetent Tim Cook was. I think all those seniors engineer are genius and genius don’t like to compromise, and I don’t this is the first time they argue. But how come nobody was fired when Steve Jobs was still alive? How come he can still keep the situation under control while under Tim Cook’s guidance, apple gotta choose one side over the other? By the way, I think Scott is really awesome, the least boring guy on apple’s keynote.

Tim Cook is not Steve Jobs and Steve Jobs was not Tim Cook. One just cannot expect Apple under Tim Cook to be run like Apple under Steve Jobs. Steve had to create something new and took enormous risks to survive and Tim Cook has to maintain what Apple is today to stay alive and would and should avoid taking extra ordinary risks. If any of many Steve’s failures were to happen to Apple today, the impact would be unthinkable. Few should feel surprised by the announcement.

Are you kidding? Scott Forstall was key driver behind OSX. This is not something to trifle with. Tim Cook is a fine lieutenant but downgrading Forstall is the canary in the coal mine. OSX was the major turning point for Apple, abandoning Forstall is insanity.